Sprint Faster With Speed Demons

The inner hip musclesâor iliopsoasâare often neglected but are important to your speed in sprinting. They are the most powerful of the hip flexor group, and their function, in simple terms, is to bring the knee to the chest. Because they are short muscles, the contraction is very fast.

Since their job is to lift the knee, it makes sense that increasing the power in these muscles will make you faster. There a few ways to do this. Hill running is good. Leg Raises with elastic bands are also good. We also have an exercise that involves resistance bands and isometric holds.

The inner hip muscles—or iliopsoas—are often neglected but are important to your speed in sprinting. They are the most powerful of the hip flexor group, and their function, in simple terms, is to bring the knee to the chest. Because they are short muscles, the contraction is very fast.

Since their job is to lift the knee, it makes sense that increasing the power in these muscles will make you faster. There a few ways to do this. Hill running is good. Leg Raises with elastic bands are also good. We also have an exercise that involves resistance bands and isometric holds.

One of my favorites, though, are Speed Demons. This is a weighted wide leg crunch with the legs elevated.

When performing Speed Demons, it's important to keep the legs straight, knees locked and the legs nice and wide. If you don't have weight discs, any weight will do, including a bag of sand or a weighted rucksack. Do 3 sets of 10 with 2 minutes recovery. The weight should be heavy enough and positioned so that you feel the strain in your hip muscles, not just your core.

Speed Demon Workout

I coach a team of sprinters, including national and international athletes. They do this routine three times weekly as follows:

Warm up for 10 minutes skipping rope. I love skipping rope for speed training. The skipping doesn't have to be particularly fast. The aim isn't to increase speed this way. The aim is to improve the stretch shortening cycle and reactive functional strength of the gastrocnemius and tibialis (calf and shin) muscles.

Lee Ness
- Lee Ness is author of the book The Sports Motivation Masterplan and is the coaching coordinator for the City of Salisbury Athletics and Running Club, and for the Wiltshire Athletic Association. He specializes in coaching for track and field, working with over 40 sprinters. Ness is also an English Fo
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